We've been holding this competition on Thursdays from 6-8 pm for several months now, and it's been pretty popular with our customers. We only have 10 Playmakers for people to use, and most Thursdays they are all in play- either by single players or groups.

It took us awhile to figure out how to score this competition. There are six trivia games during our contest, and Buzztime shows everybody's score after each game. But, they don't total scores over those two hours, and if there are ten people playing it's impossible for someone to write down everybody's score each time. We struggled for several weeks and we're grateful to the players who were patient with us while we tried out different scoring methods.

Peach finally came up with a great way for us to pick a winner based on her experience with horse shows of all things. We have a whiteboard at the bar with a chart on it, and after each game the top three players are written on the board.

For each first place finish, the player gets 5 points; 3 points for each second place finish, and 1 point for each third place finish. No points are given for any other place. At 8 pm, when all six games are over, the points are tallied. Whoever has the highest number of points wins the prize for the evening. Currently the prize is a Sandbar t-shirt.

There's another element of competition here, too. Not only are the players competing against each other (and all the people playing Buzztime around the nation), but we have a weekly challenge with the folks at Sandbar Ottawa. Whichever location gets a higher ranking in the network top 20 at any point during the night wins, and the bartender buys all the players a round of Dirty Bananas.

We tried to challenge Heroes Sports Bar in Wichita one week. They showed up regularly in the network top 20, and we connected with them on Twitter to issue a challenge. Apparently we scared their players with our smarts, though, because they left halfway through the game.

If you haven't been by to check out our Buzztime trivia game, come by! It's available to play anytime, or come in on Thursdays at 6 for our (sort of) organized contest! Get there early to get a Playmaker, and you might have to double up on teams so everyone can play.

Our original plan was to crown the high scorer at 8 pm as the winner. We quickly found out in the first week that it wouldn't be quite that easy.

If you're not familiar with Buzztime trivia, it's a nationwide trivia game that runs through a channel on our TV's. We don't program anything or pick the games, and everyone across the country is playing the same game at the same time.

Between 6 and 8 pm on Thursdays- the time Peach picked for our contest- there are six trivia games. Four of them have ten questions each; two of them have 15 questions. However, there isn't any way to keep track of each players score for all six games unless you write them all down yourself- and the scores flash on the screen so fast that's nearly impossible.

Let's just say that week one was definitely a learning experience.

But now we have two weeks under our belt, and a new plan that we think will work just fine.

We'll have two winners each night. The highest scorer on one of the ten question games, and the highest scorer on either of the two 15 question games, will each win a Sandbar shirt.

So far, we've had a great group of 7-8 players come in both nights, and other random patrons have shown interest. Congratulations to James and Ron, the big winners so far. This week, the Lawrence group placed 16th nationwide on two different games! We were excited, and since we never saw Ottawa show up on the national rankings, we decided that we won the battle this week, too.

Tropical Thursdays at The Sandbar is about to get a little more fun for the trivia buffs out there!

We've had Buzztime play-along trivia for awhile now, and there's a steady group of players on Thursday nights. Now, in addition to playing others around the world, we're turning it into a competition between the Lawrence and Ottawa Sandbars!

Every Thursday night, starting this week, from 6 to 8 pm, come in and grab a playmaker. At 8 pm, the player with the highest score at each location wins a free Sandbar t-shirt.

But wait, there's more!

Even if you aren't the player with the highest score, you can still win a prize. The players at the Sandbar with the higher score at 8 pm- as long as the location is also in the Top 50 nationwide- will also win a round of drinks, courtesy of the Sandbar staff! (Note: you have to be playing trivia in order to be included.)

It might sound lofty to place in the Top 50 nationwide, but it's not really that hard. Ottawa is frequently in the Top 10, so it sounds like Lawrence has some catching up to do.

So, bring your friends and come play some trivia with us on Thursdays!